Family Cottage in the UK Gets Barebones Plywood Addition

This family home in Windsor, UK, was recently renovated and extended by London studio TDO. The architects took inspiration from the LA Case Study homes and added the plywood addition, but wanted to retain some elements of the old 19th century dwelling and preserve the cottage’s original character.

“The parts that ultimately remained were the original small single-story cottage and the brick wall of an old outbuilding associated with it,” architect Tom Lewith said.

“The new build is set-off the retained and refurbished cottage and is formed of two boxes with distinct axes: one orientated to the entry courtyard, one to the main garden. Walking between them gradually draws the eye into the garden setting.”

The new extension — which accommodates a master suite, kitchen, living room, dining room, and study — is brighter and features higher ceilings than the main house. But what’s most striking about it are the vertical plywood frames. They’re exposed and seem almost as though the finishing dry wall has yet to be added (or was just recently torn off). The architects were working on a restricted budget, so the building (and its plywood elements) were an experiment in expressing the materiality and finish of the structure.

Glazed panels were used to visually link the kitchen to the main garden and vertical plywood frames add a distinct look, both inside and out. In the bedroom, one of the walls was imagined in glass, wood and the exposed brick wall of the pre-existing structure. Here, like in the rest of the home, the old is jammed unapologetically right up against the new.